Las Vegas NowQuestions Surround Henderson Officer-Involved Shooting

Questions Surround Henderson Officer-Involved Shooting

There are still a lot of questions surrounding an officer-involved shooting in Henderson that left a woman dead. Henderson Police say the woman threatened them with a knife after her husband called her when he was pulled over for a traffic violation.

But eyewitnesses to the shooting are outraged. They're speaking out, saying there was no need for officers to kill a woman.

Police say the officer was threatened but eyewitnesses say they never saw a knife and there was no need to shoot.

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It's a crime scene dozens of valley residents won't forget, not because they watched it on the news, but because they saw it for themselves.

"I was up all night saying Hail Mary's, God please protect this family," said one eyewitness who asked us not to show her face. She says she could not sleep last night after she watched Henderson Police kill a woman.

"My biggest thing is, why did they feel the need to shoot her? There were so many police officers. Why shoot her fatally? Shoot her in the leg," she said.

The couple both drove ice cream trucks. Now those trucks are in the Henderson Police Department's impound yard behind crime tape.

Police say the woman's husband, 65-year-old Selimaj Zyber, had been cited earlier Tuesday for speeding. Later in the afternoon he was pulled over a second time. Police say the man's wife arrived on the scene with her two sons after he called her on his cell phone.

Police say she was holding a knife and even threatening the life of her son, but eyewitnesses disagree, "The kids came up to her. She was holding them one by his hand and still yelling at police. It looked like a mother trying to protect her children is what it looked like to me."

Police say they were able to get the boys away from their mother. Eyewitnesses say the mother released them.

She was then tasered and police say she continued to make aggressive moves towards officers and was ultimately shot.

"If there was a problem with the woman, all they had to do was wound her but the excessive force and the total amount of police officers out here was absolutely ridiculous," said a witness.

Eyewitness News has learned Zyber was charged with battery misdemeanor in October of 2007 for punching a 14-year-old boy in the face. Prior to that, Zyber was also arrested for battery involving a 10-year-old.

Neighbors say the couple would park their ice cream trucks at their home every night and mostly kept to themselves.

"I didn't hear any problems around the neighborhood involving them, but hearing what happened is kind of scary," said one neighbor.

The children were taken to Child Haven where they remain. Their father was arrested for failing to stop at a stop sign, speeding in a school zone and obstructing a police officer. Henderson police won't say why he refused to sign the second citation.

Henderson Police would not comment on this investigation, saying the details will come out during the Coroner's Inquest. They say the knife the woman used is in evidence. This is the second officer-involved shooting in Henderson this year.